Light market activity as traders struggle to make it into work, but insurers
fall after spike in claims.

Britain's biggest insurers have prepared for thousands of additional claims for damage to property as hurricane-force winds sweep the south of England.

St Jude’s storm, which hit Britain on Sunday night and into Monday morning, led to a spike in calls to insurance groups, forcing the companies to draft in additional staff to handle claims and assess damages. Shares in many of the big insurers have slipped on the potential financial repercussions.

The storm also forced energy giant EDF to take the Dungeness B nuclear power station offline after debris falling on lines to the site cut its electricity supply. The station in Kent, which generates enough electricity to power 1.5m homes, was shut down as a safety measure.

EDF said it was continuing to liaise with National Grid over returning power to the station, although

Meanwhile, trading was light in the City as delays and cancellations on transport networks forced many to stay at home. Train routes into London were delayed for much of the day, while flights were cancelled at several airports across the south of England.

Despite subdued trading activity, shares in most of Britain’s insurers were sent down due to the estimated financial impact of the storm.

Esure, the FTSE 250 motor insurer behind the Sheilas’ Wheels brand, fell 2.6pc, the biggest loser amongst the big insurers. It was followed by Standard Life, which fell 1.4pc and Aviva, down 0.9pc.

Aviva said the most common claims were related to the impact of falling trees and walls, as well as winds causing damage to rooftops. The FTSE 100 company said it had drafted in additional staff to cope with the spike in claims.

A spokesman for Direct Line said: “We take the current severe weather and flood warnings extremely seriously, and have put our emergency action plans into place.”

Simon Douglas, a director at AA Insurance, said he was seeing twice as many home claims as on a normal Monday morning.

The companies were reluctant to estimate the likely cost of the storm, claiming it was too early to assess the damage. However, economist David Miles, who sits on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, said the storm is “likely to have a little bit of an impact on GDP”.

However, Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said the storm “does not appear to have had much lasting impact”.

“It is not, for example, like heavy snowfall where there may be a sustained disruption to travel and supply chains,” he said.